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Topic: ot - Landy (Read 9003 times)

I not sure if this is suitable for this forum, but it will be consuming a lot of time so I suppose it counts as a project. I have just bought a tax exempt series 3 landy. Only work so far is a rebuild of the swivels as they were seized nearly solid (still passed its MOT ) but I am sure there will be lots to come.....

One of my favorite advertisements of all times was a (mid-1960's) full-page advert in the New York Times. The central photo was of a Land Rover that was seriously twisted, bent, and thoroughly munged. The caption read,"We believe that four is the maximum number of bull elephant gorings survived by a Land Rover. If yours has survived more, please contact us a (XXX) NNN-NNNN.

So,I have spent a few months getting used to the old truck. A full rebuild will have to wait but I have done a few bits and pieces.

Exhaust support was shot so I remade it

The clutch also failed coming back from rutland water (about an hour away). After changing the hydraulics (slave and master) to no effect I realised the clutch housing was full of oil and so had stuck. this mean a clutch pressure plate and plate change as well as crankshaft rear seal and gearbox seals.

I used to have a Series IIa 2.6 litre LWB Station Wagon. I had to do a repair on the gearbox. It took me a whole day to get the floor out. Most of the bolts were seized and rounded off when a spanner was applied. I had to weld lumps of steel to the heads and the combination of heat and the extra leverage shifted them. Also, that gearbox is heavy! I removed it in pieces, alone, but there was no way that I could put it back on my own. I had never seen the interior of a gearbox before, I had to replace the layshaft and one of the gears. I spent a long time checking it over before I put it back. Fortunately all was well. I would love to obtain a series II or III to rebuild but find it too much effort to crawl underneath one these days. Good luck with yours.

Norman, years back I had a 1968 6 pot series 2a LWA Safari. Pulled like a train but the fuel consumption was horrific, I'd get under 10 mpg pulling a small camping trailer. It blew a bit of oil.

I bit the bullet, pulled the engine out and did a total rebuild, rebored, new piston and rings, reground cam and crank shaft with all new bearings, rebuilt the twin Zenith carbs (may have been Solex) and put it all back together.

.... It then pulled like a train and I got under 10 mpg ....

It was a big lump to work on and a bit of a pain as the head gasket line is at an angle to the axis of the bores, so the head is wedge shaped.

Mine was better than yours Andrew, I got 12 mpg I had my engine rebuilt and then went off on holiday driving around Kenya. On the first day out I discovered that the mechanic had damaged the crankshaft oilseal and the oil was running out. When I got home I had fourteen empty 5 litre oil cans strapped to the roof! I traded them with a Masii lady for some trinkets, so all was not lost.

My affair with Land Rovers started in my early life when my father bought a 1949 series 1 80" Tickford safari bodied one in about 1953. Worth an absolute fortune now as they are rare as rockinghorse poo. Only about 100 were made. My brother took it out to Nigeria, had it there for a few years and brought it back to blighty and sold it for £50

I see it has the most useful LandRover accessory already fitted (the towing eyes & towrope attached to the front bumper mounts) I had one for 5 years back in the early 80's, before realising ('cos I'm pretty quick on the uptake dontchaknow) that they were the epitome of everything wrong with the British car industry. Just wait until you need to weld the chassis & find that your Christmas turkey breast was wrapped with thicker metal! Every thing broke on mine from the radiator to the rear crossmember, the only good thing was that everyone else's broke too, so there was lots of advice in how to fix it!! Lots of cheap parts too. I swore never, ever, under any circumstances to get another, though strangely my missus actually liked it & suggested only recently we should get one again. AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!I suppose the Defender actually has a tubular chassis, not 4 strips of metal, turned down as substandard by Lancia, roughly welded into a box section. NO NO Stop it! Come to your senses man & go & stroke the Hilux outside...

Just had the chassis replaced in it's entirety on my 2001 Discovery 2 - it had slight rust issues round the fuel tank which could easily have been fixed, but frankly as I intend to keep it for at least another 15 years a galvanised chassis seemed the best way forwards. Initially looked to buying a newer vehicle, but recoiled in horror at the masses of electronic boxes waiting to fail, and not many vehicles to choose from that can legally tow 3.5 tons

it was a 1967 109 x Army dressed out in drab green, it road harder than a Russian Madam in dire need of a quick ruble, it had the turning circle of a three legged ferrule hog Lord only knows how the British maintained an empire with it.

With fondness I named it Alvin the Saracen due to its battle history with me! not its previous life.. I drove home from the pub one night turned into the drive and drove through the brand new shed and ended up in the kitchen,, out the door i went for a week, she got her brother to drag the landy off the fridge.

I had gearbox problems for yonks, i stuffed 3lbs of saw-dust down the filler hole and it was by virtue a miracle how that knocking just stopped, six months later the core plugs popped, six times that lump came out for me to weld the crack right where the plug was seated, i cursed it, i often wondered why they put the plug in the lump in the first place considering it didn't work i now know its for casting.

I've had 3 or 4 series landrovers- the last one was very nice, from an oil worker with plenty of money, I fitted an ex MOD diesel motor and could get 30 mpg on a good day. Had to rethink when I found that getting the starter motor out was to much for the old back. Like most old cars they are not 100% reliable but are easily fixed. Never ever been stuck and not got home.

In 1974 I had 2 SWB 80" Land-rovers, one I bought for spares was a 1949 and the other a 1952. That was in another life when I lived in the middle of a field in bleak West Wales. I had a 3/4 mile track down to my house, three streams to ford and four gates to open!My biggest problem was mud in the brake drums grinding it's way through brake linings in no time! Yes, like most ex-Land-rover owners I'm still nostalgic about it, but I'm not sure that I would like it today!

I have a '71 series 3 and have owned a long line of them before this one. Including two 80", a series 2 109, a v8 series 2 SWB, a range rover pick up truck, two SWB series 3, a disco 2, and a 109 series 3 10 seater. As a mate of mine once commented that Land Rover ownership is a bit like having Herpes - once you have are infected you can never get rid of it !!!!

My current LR is just used as a toy and only comes out on a few days in a year, but I do use it in off road competitions. It has evolved a bit over the years and now has a galvanised chassis, parabolic springs, 2.5 litre petrol engine (as opposed to a 2.25), twin batteries, winch, compressor, overdrive etc etc etc

As there are Land Rover aficionados in plentiful supply, would one of you happen to know the PCD of the bolts holding the viscous fan mounting. The fan itself needs a 36mm spanner. As those 'in the know' will appreciate the space to actually try and measure said PCD is somewhat limited.The special tool would normally be cheaper and easier to get, if it were not the Season of Goodwill, aka the Christmas holidays.The model is a 2005/6 Disco 3, 2.7L.TIA PetePS It's not mine, but a neighbours job.

My father Bought a Landrover Safari type years ago and the only thing i remember was it had this Spot light on the roof that you could turn from inside the vehicle (Im guessing for locating Big Cats !)...so when we were looking for house numbers late at night you could shine it at the House doors ! was great just looked like the police were searching for suspects in the Neighbourhood ! Good ole days.

Here I am in the seventies standing next to my bare chassis rebuilt landrover series2, obviously needed more brain oil! It became the recovery vehicle for my garage business, and did sterling work dragging many cars and vans out of the ditches around Langtoft, during which time the carb was replaced with a SU from an old Rover 75, which improved starting and MPG from 14mpg to about 22 mpg, but the old one leaked more than it fed to the inlet!

.... would one of you happen to know the PCD of the bolts holding the viscous fan mounting. The fan itself needs a 36mm spanner. As those 'in the know' will appreciate the space to actually try and measure said PCD is somewhat limited.The model is a 2005/6 Disco 3, 2.7L.

Just in case anyone has the need to make a tool for holding the fan, according to my measurements the PCD of the bolts is 57.50mm.Pete

If any of you series Landy owners need the gearbox mainshaft nut tool I made four of them to help the guys out. Just pay for postage but I do ask for a nominal £20 returnable deposit to try and make sure they come back to help someone else.